Dishing up Mental Health - with mashed SSRI’s on the side

In the last two blogs, you've been offered new tastes, samples of studies and information about how nutrition impacts our over-all brain function and the premise that nutrition plays a role in our mental health. We also learned that you are what you eat, literally. What we eat flows within our entire body-system. (The young-adult with a nut allergy who had a reaction while receiving blood platelets from a donor who ate peanut butter every day.)

I am going to trust that you have enjoyed the samples you’ve received so far and are willing to nibble a little more to see what other delights await you for this third course of “Dishing up mental health.” 

Before you are served the next course, let’s reflect and digest the results of the prior courses you’ve already tasted. 

A short summary of the first two courses has cited studies that certain foods, and mainly food of the western diet have a non-beneficial  impact on mental health. That impact has been found to be latent. The adversarial results of not-so-good eating habits can appear up to 6-years later. 

Old/New recipe for mental health

What started me on this path of questioning nutrition and mental health was a book written by Dr. Pfeiffer, (1987)‘ 'Nutrition and Mental Illness, An Orthomolecular Approach to Balancing Body Chemistry,' Pfeiffer, a pioneer in the orthomolecular field spent 20-years studying and researching nutrition and mental health. (died in 1988).

For me, it was like finding an old recipe that was intriguing, so I decided to find out more about it. What ignited me, was the understanding that there are less side-effects from taking supplements than synthetic medication. Who doesn't want less side-effects?

What I find truly interesting is that studies on this topic and or subject of nutrition and mental health have been taking place for quite sometime. I  also found a 1997 study in the ‘Journal of Health and Social Behavior ‘(Seifert, Heflin, Cochran, Williams, 2004) that discusses the results of poor nutrition and its impact on mental health. 

These studies have been happening for almost 40 years, yet they really aren't found or touted in mainstream information. (And that is an entirely different meal, so let's head back to this dish.) 

Ingredients are part of the entire dish

There seems to be a disconnect within the Western culture about food and the entire body. We’ve been hearing from Michelle O’bama about how we need to improve the quality of the food our children eat and that food impacts our physical health, so why wouldn't it also impact our mental health? Is our brain development and function separate from the physical functions of the rest of our body? 

Many times the scientific community portrays our brain and mind as two separate entities. For research purposes they compartmentalize, create “parts” to better analyze and then feed us the results in a manner of individuality rather than as an entirety. For example this title, ‘Linking Mind and Brain in the Study of Mental Illnesses: A Project for a Scientific Psychopathology,’  (Andreasen, 1997) portrays that our body is separate as is the mind and brain. They actually have to be ‘linked’ yet,  we know that our bodies function as a whole, it works together and can compensate if something is missing, and that takes team work, one-mind, one-body, one-being. 

When following a recipe to make a pie, you add the ingredients separately, and then they work together as a system to create a  whole, one large pie. Our bodies are much more complex than making a pie. Yet, that is how we dissect it, view it, look at it. So maybe that is another change the needs to take place, and once again an entirely different dish than what we are exploring here. 

  Food is fuel — it helps sustain the whole (your entire physical being, inside and out)

If food is fuel and our brain is part of the ignition to get things moving in our body, why wouldn't what we put into our body impact the way our brain functions and thus impact our mental health as well? Isn’t it all one? To make a loaf of bread all the ingredients eventually have to be mixed together to become a loaf. We don’t get just a slice. 

When looking at mental health and not including nutrition is like leaving out an important ingredient in a recipe. The dish may still appear edible and whole, but is it? 

What would the recipe for mental health look like if the first course  or ingredient was nutrition supplements rather than SSRI medications? 

A side of sexual dysfunction or weight gain with your main course?

And that leads us to our third course. Take a bite of this, what if nutrition impacted an decreased mental health issues and that in turn could decrease the current amounts of medications used to treatment mental illness, in young people and adults? What results would we see in the community of mental health? Could people become better without severe side effects? Would people become healthier and not have to deal with withdrawal? What happens to our mental health when our body is healthier, feels better? 

In 2001 Dr. James Ferguson, MD (2001) published a study on antidepressant medications and while these medications keep evolving, Ferguson,  states that they are “not a magic bullet” and no matter what, the side-effects are still adverse.

The side-effects of SSRI medication can be compared to over-indulging in food. When I over eat, I don’t sleep well, SSRI’s impede sleep. I sure don’t feel attractive and like have a sexual interlude with my extended belly, my libido drops and the same happens with SSRI meds. When I over eat, I become lethargic, feel a little off, just not myself. And that can happen with SSRI medication as well. For some people that will be a step up from where they were, for others it continues the cycle, they feel off-center. That makes me question if its better for them, or just different? And different is more acceptable than what was? 

Just a pinch of an ingredient can change the entire dish

I want to be clear here. I am not against SSRI medications, what I am saying is what if the first course of intervention was looking at nutrition AND THEN medication? What type of results would we see for people with mental illness? How would the medications change? Less used, lower doses, shorter duration of use? 

Below is a video with  psychiatrist, Dr. Kelly Brogan, PhD. (2013) She shares four minutes of her perspective of SSRI medication usage. 

Here is a a testimonial by Samantha Marie(2015) who has had a positive experience with SSRIs. She stresses that the antidepressants work along WITH therapy. We are always at choice, do you take two slices of cake or one? The bigger one or the one with more frosting....you get to choose. I give Samantha props for not giving up and making the choice that fits her right now. 

Twist to an old recipe for mental health

In the late 1970's Pfeiffer developed a protocol of supplements to assist with many mental health diagnosis, for example, depression, childhood ADD, as well as physical ailments, such as migraine headaches,  MS , alcoholism and these are just a few. If you are open minded, I recommend pursuing some of his publications and seeing what is offered. I found them insightful, interesting and thought provoking. As I hope you do too, try it, you just might like it!

My desire is that I have helped to wet your appetite to look into different recipes for mental health. I know I've offered some new ingredients, some you may like, some you may not, you choose. 

Bon appetite! 

References:

Andreasen, N.C. (1997, March 14). Linking Mind and Brain in the Study of Mental Illness: A Project for a Scientific Psychopathology.   Retrieved April 3, 2016, from http://science.sciencemag.org/content/275/5306/1586.full

Brogan, K., Dr. (2013, Dec. 28). A Psychiatrists perspective on Antidepressants.(YouTube). Retrieved on April 3, 2016. 

Ferguson, J., Dr. (2001, Feb. 3). SSRI Antidepressant Medications: Adverse Effects and Tolerability. US Library of Medicine and Institutes of Health. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from www. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC181155/

Let's Move. America's move to raise a healthier generation of kids.(no date given). Retrieved April 3, 2016 from http://www.letsmove.gov

Pfeiffer, C. D., Dr. (1987). Nutrition and Mental Illness an Orthomolecular Approach to Balancing Body Chemistry. Rochester, NY: Healing Arts. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from  http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_pfeiffer_ed.html

Seifert, K., Heflin, C.M., Corcoran, M. E., Williams, D. R., (2004, June 24). Food Insufficiency and Physical and Mental Health in Longitudinal Survey of Welfare Recipients. Retrieved April 3, 2016, from http://science.sciencemag.org/content/2755306/1586.full

Samantha M., (2015, Feb. 8). My Experience on SSRI medications.(YouTube) Retrieved on April 3, 2016.